The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-03-04

me CrusI slaughtsr Of Birds for Dseors-
tive Purposes.

.
when young men greet the morning
with the declaration, II Il glorious
weather, let's 90 kin something" We
may be sure there is something wrong
In Denmark" or America, or wnateyer
the country in which the remark IL
made. Generations have acknowledged
the power Of man over inferior creatures
till he has become tyrannical. and
'4oyersteps the modesty Of nature" The
citation of q few statistics win prove
the truth Of this assertion. II is COM
puted that among $4,000. 900 Of people
in the United States one-half that num-
Der belong to what has been denom-
mated 1.-THE dead-bird wearing gender"
Let us suppose that 10000. 900 of these
wear whole birds, can the sacrifice Of
songsters be less than 5000, 600 an
nually? The milliners demand these
decorations because women customers
demand them.
One of our ornithologists heard an,
agent Of the millinery trade in Texas
solicit sportsman to procure for him
the plumes of 10000 white egrets
On Cape Cod 10000 terms were de-
stroyed in q single season, and L000, 600
rails and bo5oiinks were killed near
Philadelphia in a single month VIII
these facts convince as that the use Of
feathers as personal decoration il o
cruelty? just 50 longs as it's continued.
so long will the shops of modistes be
supplied by mercenaries, who some
times skin their victims alive to pre-
serve the gloss of their plumage. We
not only import but export feathers and
whole birds. A taxidermist on Long
Island shore engaged gunners to furnish
him with 800 birds q day, if possible.
He intended sending them all to France.
An observer counted eleven out Of
thirteen women in q Madison street
horse-car in New York who wore feath-
ers, and in two of the streets of the
same city 542 out of 700 has were
similarly adorned. One dealer during
three months on the coast of South
Carolina prepared 11,0l8 bird-skins.
and she states that he handles on an
average $4,000 skins per annuin, Of
which the greater part are cut up for
millinery purposes" This was in the
spring Of 1884, and during the follow
ing summer a New York woman con-
tracted with an enterprising Paris mill
linery firm to deliver 10000 skins Of
birds at 40 cents apiece
Mr.. butcher writes that one of the
most active gunners of Seaford. with
his associates, sent to market during
the early summer of 1883 over 5000
terms There are many marshes and
meadows between Coney Island and
Fire Island inlet which for years have
been the breeding places of thousands
of common terms or sea swallows, and
on the sandy beaches the least tern and
piping plover laid their eggs and
Matched their young. Now this long
stretch of country is waste place. for
the hand of the destroyer has left but
lone remnants of what was once q TEEN
ing colony. He adds: THE initiative
in the movement for the protection Of
birds must be with the wives, sweet
hearts, and mothers. and not alone with
the laws and Lawmakers
MIR. Allen, among other facts, men,
tons the slaughter of Northern birds
who migrate South for a winter home.
Some Of the stalls in Norfolk market
had, in March. 1885. 800 to 400 small
birds exposed for food; these included
robins. meadowlarks, blackbirds. spar.
rows, thrushes, warblers, yireos, and
warnings advertiser.